Successes

I spent the day in the lab at the Creation Evidence Museum today. During the hours there I was able to get the help I needed. I talked through the issue I have been having with the SEM and it turned out to be a minor mechanical adjustment was needed to realign the beam through the gun. Once that was accomplished the tech had me go through a series of complicated steps to reset the beam alignment on the microscope. The tech was in California but was sitting in front of an identical model of SEM as he guided me through the calibrations. Since we made the adjustments several times in the last hour we talked, I was mostly certain I could reproduce the adjustments when needed.

When I got off the phone with the tech, I placed a bone fragment from a Amargasauras into the sample port and took a look. It turned out that I needed to repeat the adjustments to get the image to display. But I did get an image! None of us looking at the image had a clear idea of what we were seeing in the bone, but it was a magnification of 2,500 times whatever we were looking at. That was exciting. Tomorrow we will make a better sample to look over and really begin exploring. For today, I feel like we made huge progress. 

Taking a step back, it turned out that the problem I was having was a simple fix to something that should not have needed adjustment. The adjustment I had to fumble through was minuscule, but the outcome was grand. No one is sure how the misalignment happened, but it is corrected now. Fortunately, the tech knew what to do to eliminate potential issues one by one until he had the problem isolated. In so doing, I learned a lot. It was a good day.

Meanwhile, Mama and Grandpa went to the cardiologists today and Grandpa got a fair report. He still has an irregular heartbeat but is compensating well enough. So, the treatment he is under will continue as normal. There is not much more we can ask at this time. Grandma, seems to have had a major medical turnaround today. For two days she has confined herself to bed, getting up only for very brief spells which required someone help her make it back to the bed. Today, she is up, laughing and joking and having a great time. We are not sure what happened that made the difference, but I suppose we are glad for it?

On the farm, another of our nanny goats gave birth this evening. Mama has been watching her all day expecting the kidding, but we did not see the little ones until we were headed to Decatur for a visitation for our Pastor’s brother who died Sunday night. When we did spot the new little ones in the goat barn, Mama and I turned around to get a better look before we left the farm. Once again, they are Little Boy Blue offspring. Both of the little ones this time are boys, but that is okay since they will fetch a really good price in the Myotonic market. We have one more nanny yet to kid, but that will happen by this weekend. So far, we have four little girls and four little boys. One of the little girls we were nursing along died Tuesday night.

Our realtor In Lawton has been helping us replace the roof on our property there. I tried for several weeks to contact the insurance agency to get the roof inspected, but the agent that had been helping us, and the only contact I had available, died of cancer. Sad. So, our realtor made the contacts we needed got the roof inspected. The roof was totaled, and we should be receiving a check shortly to cover the expense of that roof repair. Our contractor, who’s become a friend of ours, told us that he would make sure everything fit well within the budget of the roof replacement so we should at least break even on that and end up with the brand-new roof on our property. 

One of the things that he told us specifically about the rental property, one of those praise the Lord moments, was that he was very impressed by the renters, he said the house was immaculate inside and out. That the renters are taking exceptional care of the property, which he rarely sees in his rental properties. So, he was extremely impressed, and we were very pleased, because we’re hoping to sell that house later this year.

God is good!